


Coverage

by Morpheus626



Category: Night at the Museum (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:49:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25046413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morpheus626/pseuds/Morpheus626
Summary: The perils of parts of one's display going traveling without you...poor Ahkmenrah lol.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26





	Coverage

**Author's Note:**

> A quick note that while everything I’ve looked at puts Ahk at seventeen when he died, that is something I just…can’t see??? Like, aside from the fact that Rami was in his mid-twenties in the first movie, it just feels not quite accurate? Like…idk. I remember being seventeen, he’s way too put together for seventeen at least to me. Plus, I know other folks have aged him up in fics for similar reasons, so that’s what I’m doing here. For my fic canon, Ahk is 21-still young enough to do dumb shit and make dumb decisions, but old enough to know better lol.

It wasn’t uncommon for parts of the exhibits to be pulled for traveling, to other museums or as parts of combination traveling exhibits, to be taken from city to city before returning home. 

That Ahkmenrah’s clothes had ended up in the latest one, however, was frustrating. 

“I’m not staying in here just because I’ve nothing to wear,” Ahkmenrah scoffed. 

“You can’t go out in…that,” Larry sighed, gesturing to the skirt he wore, that hung just far enough down to cover what needed covering. 

“Why not? You’ve noted before that I ‘show off enough’ with ‘my abs hanging out’ so why is this any worse?” Ahkmenrah scoffed. “I’m not sitting in my hall all night, alone, for how many nights until my clothes get back, so move.” 

“I have an extra uniform,” Larry started. 

“Absolutely not. Those pants…” Ahkmenrah winced. 

“I’ll find you something else to wear, just give me ah, ugh,” Larry sighed, but he ignored it as he walked past him, out to the hallway and down to the main center of the museum. 

“Well, hello,” Jed laughed from his seat on top of one of the stairs going down to the front desk. “You gonna be goin’ around like that every night now?” 

“You people are ridiculous. In my time, people didn’t even wear clothes until they were six years of age. I am covered, as much as I can be until my clothing returns to me,” he sighed. 

“Look, kid,” Jed started. 

“I am not a child, do not call me that,” he interrupted. “How could you be older than me anyway, tiny wax man?” 

“Hey, hey! No need to get offensive, okay? I’m just saying, you’re gonna turn a few heads going around like that. But you just go on and see…” Jed shook his head. 

He trotted down the stairs past him, ignoring the occasional gasp and more than a few whistles. It was just clothing, there was no reason for this to end his night. 

The horse in front of him was a bit of an obstacle though. 

“My boy, you seem to be missing something. A few somethings. I mean, good you have one something covering your…something. Y’know, if someone’s taken them, all we have to do is let Gengis know. He’ll pull ‘em apart, and we’ll find your clothes right quick! Come on, up you come,” Teddy’s gloved waved in front of his face, reaching to pull him up onto the horse. 

“Teddy, I’m fine. They’re on display, I believe in Boston this week. When they are back, I will be clothed properly again, but until then? I am not staying hidden away while I wait for them.” 

“Ah. Well…look. I have no problem with the human form, but we must consider those around us,” Teddy replied. 

A few of the women mannequins from the Civil War diorama chose that moment to walk past, giggling and he figured if they had a way to blush, they would have been. 

“They don’t have a problem with it,” he said. “You, Larry, and the little cowboy-” 

“You know his name is Jed. Don’t lose your manners just because you’re cold,” Teddy scolded. “And don’t tell me you aren’t. Larry complains about it constantly, and you’re as much flesh and blood as he is.” 

He was. Without his sandals, the marble floor was like ice, and while his clothes hadn’t staved off much of the chill of the A/C, it was enough to be comfortable at least. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been cold enough to have goosebumps, but he did now. 

“There’s no shame in sitting away for a few nights until they’re back. Some of us can come to you, you know,” Teddy smiled. 

He stared at the floor. He knew Teddy didn’t get it, and that was fine. How could he, if he hadn’t experienced it? Didn’t know the taste of the fear, of the worry in the back of his mind…

Teddy’s smile fell to a frown. “You don’t think Lawrence would force you into your sarcophagus until they return, do you? That’s it, isn’t it, that’s what you’re thinking.” 

He shrugged. “Look, I don’t…” He could feel eyes on him as he spoke, and suddenly it was a much too vulnerable thing to talk about. “Can we go elsewhere to speak on this, perhaps?” 

He knew Teddy was only wax, and that there was a great deal of the tablet’s magic that let him move at all, in the manners that he did. Still, being pulled up onto Teddy’s horse as if he weighed barely anything at all was surprising. 

“If we keep moving, no one else can listen in,” Teddy replied as he directed the horse down a different hall. 

“I know none of you can really understand it. And I want to think that none of you would ever trap me in there again…” he let his head drop against Teddy’s back. It was only slightly easier being able to say it out loud this way. He kept waiting for the offense, the anger, from Teddy. It made him want to jump down and run back to his exhibit, to have his statues lock the doors to it for the night. “But I worry. I spent…so many years, in there. In the dark, and the dust, and the silence. That was the worst part, the quiet, then occasionally hearing someone walk by, and trying to get them to understand somehow, to let me out for even just a moment…and then hearing them leave.” 

“You think if you don’t go out each night, Lawrence will change his mind. Will figure you’d rather stay put in there,” Teddy said quietly, tipping his hat to the lioness walking past them as the horse trotted on down another hall. 

“That you all might think that. I mean…I’ve always wondered. Why no one would even crack it open, to talk to me. To let me explain that I needed to be let out, that staying in there each night was absolute torture.” 

“…I want you to know that I don’t tell you all of this as an excuse. Just an explanation. In retrospect, we should have let you out much, much sooner. But I can’t go back and change that,” Teddy sighed. “We operated off a fear of a curse. It had been talked about before, mentioned that no one knew for sure if that’s what opening your sarcophagus would release. Had we known everything, that it was you who let us live as we do each night, that you were flesh and blood each night in there…I want to think things would have been different.” 

They rode in silence for the next few minutes, until they arrived at his exhibit. 

“If nothing else, myself and Sacagawea will come by until your clothing returns from its travels. I want to reassure you, no one will force you back in there, Ahkmenrah. And if they tried, well, the rest of us would make sure they didn’t succeed,” Teddy dismounted after him, and followed him into the hall. “If you want to go back out, we can.” 

He shook his head. All of his gusto to be bold, to be out with the others despite his lack of clothes was gone. 

“Then we’ll stay put right here,” Teddy said, and sat on the steps leading up to the sarcophagus. 

He moved to join him, when Larry came skidding into the hall, a plastic bag in his hand. 

“Hey, sorry. This took longer than I thought it would, store was so busy. Also, do you know that like, no stores around here sell clothes this late at night? I’ve never really had to like, look for that, so I, uh…yeah,” he said, out of breath. “But, I did find something. I can keep it in my locker during the day, and bring it to you each night until your clothes are back. Or if you just want to keep wearing this, honestly. I may have bought one for myself too, they’re super soft.” 

“Lawrence…did you leave?” Teddy asked. 

“Well…yeah. But just for a bit, and hey, all of you are fine! It’s fine!” Larry replied. “Besides, it was for a good cause.” 

The robe Larry handed him was black, fluffy, and the warmest thing he’d ever put on. It was long enough to hit the floor, and he imagined he looked mildly ridiculous in it. 

He loved it. 

“Larry, thank you, I…you didn’t have to do this just for me,” he fumbled for the words. They butted heads often enough that he’d figured Larry wouldn’t care enough to do something like this. But here he was. 

“Look, you’re right. You shouldn’t have to hide away because your clothes got taken away. We wouldn’t do it to anyone else here, so we aren’t gonna to you. And it’s cold in here, so you couldn’t go around in just that, I mean really. Teddy can vouch for me on this, it’s so cold all the time!” Larry said. 

Teddy rolled his eyes, but nodded.

“Oh, and these. There were slippers, but I figured you’d just slip around here with those,” Larry said, and pulled a pair of slip on shoes from the bag. “Are your feet not freezing? Mine would be.” 

“Lawrence, you do know you could control the A/C while we’re awake? And then return it to the original settings in the morning?” Teddy asked. 

“Nah, too much work,” Larry replied, and he tried not laugh as he heard Teddy scoff. “Better?” 

It was. It was strange, wearing something other than his sandals, but he was warm and comfortable and touched that Larry had cared enough to buy him them. 

“Ready to go back out? I mean, I know there’s only a few hours left, but that’s still enough time to go hang out with everyone,” Larry continued. “Right, Teddy?” 

“Right! The night is young; we go to ride!” Teddy laughed as they headed out of the hall to his horse, ever-patient, waiting right where he’d been left near the doors. 

The looks this time as they strode down the hall together were just as curious, but he didn’t mind them this time. He was more than happy to tell the rest about Larry’s kindness and Teddy’s willingness to stay with him if he’d still had nothing to wear. How their night watchman really did have them covered for every eventuality, even this one. 

He couldn’t convince Larry to let him keep it in the sarcophagus, but that was alright. There would be questions Larry couldn’t answer if the lid was left off as it was on occasion for observation, and someone spotted the robe and shoes. 

But he could ask for them every night, even after his usual garb had returned, and he was more than grateful for that.


End file.
